Latest kit
New-standard Arai helmet, boots and more
THE CLAIM
“The smooth, round shape is a key Arai signature and primarily designed to ‘glance-off’ and spread impact forces. Using the aerodynamic and protective abilities of Arai’s full-race helmets and all the experience and know-how earned over millions of road kilometres, it offers a fresh choice for riders that want the best performance from a helmet, in terms of protection, comfort and ease of wear, day-in, day-out – with zero compromise.”
THE REALITY
Arai’s new high-end sports touring lid feels like a high-end product as soon as you get it out of the box. The first helmet on sale that complies with the new standard, ECE22.06, to protect against rotational injuries, it has some of the highest protection on the market, wonderful build quality and deep paint.
The first thing you notice is how easy it is to put on, with little resistance on your cheeks, to the point where you think it is almost too big. But it isn’t; it locates well, doesn’t twist forward like a big lid or wobble either. The lining is comfortable, too — smooth, plush and no pressure points for my fairly average-shaped noggin. A ten-hour riding day is easy.
On the road, it feels well-balanced. At 1600g, it isn’t the lightest of helmets but it does a good impression of being lighter thanks to decent aerodynamic performance. I’ve tried it on bikes as diverse as KTM’S 1290 Super Adventure, a Yamaha R1 and an MT-09SP and it’s worked well on each of them, with a good field of vision only slightly interrupted with those vents on the visor (you look through them). Although a road-based lid, I’ve also used it on track — and it is good at 45mph as 145mph.
Venting is effective; though the new venting on the Arai logo is imperceptible, the rest work well enough and crucially don’t add to noise levels during use.
Overall, it’s a good performance from the Quantic, though bear in mind it isn’t cheap, there’s no drop-down sun-visor and the actual visor mechanism itself is fiddlier than some rivals.